Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Over the past two weeks, I have been following Mrs. Dorothy Burt who teaches in Manaiakalani. I have learned a great deal from Mrs. Burt's blog, and I definitely will continue to check her blog. She has some great advice for the classroom, and through her blog I was introduced to Aviary. Aviary was recently bought by Google and will soon be available on Google Docs. With Aviary, you can use many programs: image editor, color editor, effects editor, vector editor, image markup, screen capture, and audio editor, and it is all for free! I was extremely excited to hear about this program considering how influential Google is in our class. I have started using Aviary, and I absolutely love it. I will definitely continue using it, and I know this will benefit me as a teacher.

In the second post I read, Mrs. Burt discussed how parents are beginning to engage in the students' writing. I am taking a teaching comp. class this semester. The class helps us with different techniques with teaching writing. Mrs. Burt has her students post their work on the class blog. I think that posting the students' work on the blogs is an excellent way to get the students more motivated. I definitely will use this advice when I become a teacher. The blog is public; therefore, the parents and anyone else has access to the students' writing. Mrs. Burt is helping the parents through email and Facebook by setting up an RSS feed. Their access to the internet is slim, so when they check their accounts, they can see the posts made. I love the fact that the parents are so involved, and they have a desire to connect with the children. I think a parent's approval is an important aspect for all children to succeed. The things Mrs. Burt is doing with her class and the opportunities she is creating makes me extremely excited to become a teacher. I have learned so much, and I am so thankful for her words of wisdom.

1 comments:

Thank you so much for the feedback you have left on my posts. It is very important to receive feedback from people outside of your usual network - bringing fresh eyes and perspectives to what you have to say. I am very envious of the training you people get in Dr Strange's class. You have such an amazing headstart to you teaching careers because of it. Please remember as you go forward what an important thing it is to have global connections in the 21st century. I do hope we continue to "see" each other online.Dorothy